Time Efficiency

I spend a lot of time on social media. Probably not as much as some people, but still A LOT.

I have personal accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, urm, and probably a few others that I can’t think of right now.

I have an FB page, IG and Twitter accounts for our family business.

I have an FB page and Twitter account for my little marketing business.

I have an IG account for our dogs (long story but I had a little flurry into e-commerce a couple of years ago, started the account for that, and after I closed the e-commerce business it became just a fun account full of other people and their dogs), I also have a Twitter account for the e-commerce business (not in use).

I have an FB page and Twitter for Project Life Success.

I have a separate, anonymous Twitter account for me and some trials I went through a few years ago.

I think that’s it but there’s probably some more I’ve missed.

And so on.

Social media frenzy!

I try not to share my entire life on FB as some people do. I try to be generally quite positive, but I know I share a lot of things about my biggest passions – the environment and animal rights. A few people have commented on how political I am, although I don’t really think I am political at all, in the political party sense. So, I try to water it all down with some fun stuff too.

Yesterday, I got into an argument on FB with someone I used to be friends with. He was a sweet guy, but a few years ago, probably at the same time that the Brexit campaign started, he became really political. He became convinced of the new world order trying to take over the world, became very pro-Brexit, pro-Trump, anti-Hillary Clinton, anti-Muslim, anti-immigration etc etc. Hey, I am in no position to judge or decide if he’s right or wrong. But what really riled me was his posts became increasingly nasty, mocking ‘libtards’ and so on. Yet, in the case of immigration etc, never ever offering any solutions. As a result, I unfollowed him some time ago.

Now I know the world isn’t perfect and I also know there are things going on that none of us have any idea about. I stopped watching the news in about 2010 as it was mostly journalists gossiping about things that might/might not happen, so I do sometimes feel that I don’t know as much as others do, because my focus is on building our business and creating success, not following biased reporting of world events. So I try to be open to all differing views and perspectives.

But I ended up in this weird argument which came from nowhere. Eventually I wrote a long angry comment to this guy, explaining all his hatred and why it was so ugly, posted it, then ran it past D and asked him if I should delete it, he agreed I should. I screenshot it and deleted it, I am glad I did. I haven’t looked through notifications this morning to see if he has replied and I don’t want to. He may not have had time to see it.

The whole incident has shocked me. I don’t know where my anger came from, and I don’t know where my ex-friend’s anger has come from to rile me so much. I really, really, really never wanted to have an argument like that out on social media for all the world to see.

I guess if we were seeing each other in real life, we would either have a laugh about it or a heated conversation and sort it out. I don’t see him now, so we never get chance for a real-life conversation.

My only contact with him is his horrid comments and posts (even though I’ve unfollowed him he does pop up in comments etc). And I’ve just realised how damaging that has been.

Is social media hurting us? You can definitely have too much of it. It seems to have produced an entire world of really angry, opinionated people who never meet, but just get really really angry behind their keyboards.

I’ve decided from now on to only really post much lighter stuff. From now on I won’t get involved in political things, and I will limit the amount of my-passion stuff that I share – even the animal/environmental stuff.

I am barraged every day by charities asking me to support them and share their posts. Most of the time I do want to spread the word – yet I see for myself how much that switches people off. The only effect then is that I lose friends and people become even more turned off.

So, it’s positive all the way from now on, folks! With a business focus, because that is what I need to be concentrating on anyway. I can do the converting when I have reached a platform that I can convert on.

Might even claw some time back to do the thing I really need to do – work on the business!

So it could have been infuriating.

On Wednesday night Dean and I left Cumbria for the 223-mile journey down to Peterborough.

We were due on the Joint Venture course at Progressive Property*. Two whole days of learning how to work with investors – which agreements to use, how to ensure we stay well within the law and within agreements that will work for us, any potential investors and everyone else.

Wednesday was a crazy day. Hey, every day is crazy for us!

My parents have come to stay for a month (I enrolled them in Sam-and-dog-sitting some weeks ago), and just before they arrived Dean decided to take down a wall and the old ceiling in their en suite. Then he found the existing shower was faulty. Then, both jobs we had ongoing developed unexpected issues. So, everything fell behind schedule and when my parents arrived, wearily stepping into the house after a long, long drive, the room was still filthy and full of tools and Dean was flustered and busy with hours ahead.

Naturally, one of our neighbours/friends who has been incredibly supportive then called to say her bath was leaking into the floor below.

It was also enrolment night for Sam at his new college course.

We had an appointment booked with potential bathroom clients which I had provisionally aimed at approximately 5.30pm.

So the plan was to casually swan off, all ready and prepared at 4.30pm, pop into college with Sam, then leave him settling in with all his new friends and with money to take the train home while we headed south, via the potential clients.

Of course that didn’t happen!

At 4pm, with Dean still hard at work, I took my mum and the dogs up to the field so she could see what to do when it came to walking them.

At 4.50pm I took Sam into college, he enrolled, but of course we couldn’t leave him, they needed to speak to me. Apparently adults are still responsible for young people, even once they have reached the dizzy age of 16!

Dean and I finally left at 6.30pm, got to the friend/neighbour’s who had by then gone out, we made it to the client’s house at 7pm – they want to go ahead, which is good news – and eventually set off on the long road south at 8 pm.

And then came the final disaster. As we neared the final 90 minutes of the journey, the A1 was closed with a diversion in place. It took us on a wide tour of central England, a long line of diverted traffic crawling through sleeping villages and past dark farms, as we argued over whether we should stick to the diversion or follow a different route using our phones. It was well past midnight by the time we got to the hotel and entered our stale smoke-filled room. The mattress was pretty lumpy and uncomfortable – a little like a water bed, wobbling every time one of us moved.

We arrived at Progressive Property towers just before 9;30am on Thursday feeling absolutely shattered. Even through my exhaustion I sensed something was wrong when I saw the small group of peple gathered there, with trainers I recognised from a different course – I’ve done plenty of courses at Progressive, I usually can’t recommend them highly enough.

My sinking feeling turned out to be right. The course had been cancelled some weeks earlier and for some reason I was never notified. It was pretty mortifying after the long drive and the cost of the fuel, hotel and, most importantly, our TIME.

But, it was my own fault for not checking and, with the benefit of hindsight, it seems extremely stupid to have set off for such a long way without double checking the event was still on. (In my defense, all the courses I’ve attended previously at Progressive Property have all run as planned, in fact they’ve all without fail been absolutely superb learning.)

We returned to the hotel in a disappointed daze, gutted to have wasted so much time, but determined to make the best of it that we could. We popped to the shopping centre next to the hotel and bought some new shirts for Dean (he was a man in desperate need of a few shirts!) Then we set off for home feeling shattered and resentful and dreaming of the wonderful sleep we would have had that night if we were at home. As Dean drove, I leaned against my pillow and tried – failed – to sleep.

And then, something miraculous happpened. From somewhere came a second burst of energy, and we started talking about the property we’re living in, the one we’ve been considering turning into a house of multiple occupancy – an HMO.

We priced up pretty much the entire work needed, something we’ve been planning to do for ages. If the sums don’t work, we won’t do the work needed to create the HMO, so this was crucial.

We also stopped at a few kitchen places on our way back up north.

It meant that once we arrived back at home, to two delighted dogs and three bemused humans, we could begin a serious discussion about what to do with the property. And so the decision was reached. There will be no HMO. Instead we will renovate to a high standard, ready for a family home, and either let it or sell it as such.

The work needed to make this old, slightly awkward property into a 5-bed, 5-en suite HMO is just too much and too expensive. It would take every penny that we have, and it would take forever. And right now we need to keep hold of some money, and we need as soon as possible to be able to concentrate 100% on the business.

And although I’d been looking forward to putting an HMO together, it is a relief to have finally made a decision. Now we can move forward, get it done, and get back to business.

I would have preferred not to spend hours in the van, traipsing for miles through the dark, not really sleeping on a dodgy mattress, and losing a day’s work.

But by deciding not to let the day be a waste, we turned something that could have been really negative into a positive, and that was definitey worth doing.

(Oh, and Progressive have offered to reimburse what we’ve spent and they’ve given us a choice of dates to attend the next course, so we will be back – although we might change hotel.)

*Progressive Property is probably the UK’s biggest and best property success story, started by two friends and colleagues, Rob Moore and Mark Homer, and offering fantastic training into how to make money from property. Their courses are awesome (we’ve been on loads of them) and it all starts at their Multiple Streams of Property Income course (MSOPI) which is a 3-day course all about property. Tickets usually cost a few hundred pounds but they are free if you get referred from someone else – if you would like free tickets email me at projectlifesuccess@gmail.com and I will make sure you get yours!

If you are thinking of becoming a landlord, be aware that when you rent out properties, there is ALWAYS something that needs to be done!

(Yes, even if you do use an agent to manage your property.)

So here’s the story:

Monday: Email from the letting agent on Monday to say the arm on one of the sofas has broken and would I like them to source a new one (couch not arm) for £295 + VAT?

Positive: Agent would find new sofa and have delivered. No hassle to me.

Negative: Next month’s rent would be around £350 down. Plus I would have to pay for the old sofa to be removed.

Hmmmmm.

Tuesday: Tenant of another property (very local to us here) asks randomly if I know anyone who wants a new sofa. Amazing! I look, it’s in great condition, a couple of years old, still with Fire Regulations tags attached.

Positive: Just been offered replacement sofa for free!

Negative: House is nearly 100 miles away and couch will need to be delivered there.

Hmmmmm.

Wednesday: I speak to Dean. We decide to take the sofa to the house ourselves.

Positve: Even with fuel we will save around £300.

Negative: We’ll use up a huge amount of our own time taking it.

Hmmmmm.

Saturday: We take the sofa but we use the day as best we can:

We turn it into one of our regular property inspections

It’s good to see the tenants again and chat about any issues

While Dean drives, I work out profit/loss on the business

We listen to ‘Uncommon Sense’ by Mark Homer on Audible, to increase our business knowledge*

We take Frankie the dog, which gives her experience travelling in the van

AND I film the day, which turns into this:

So we turned what could have been a wasted day into a useful one. Frankie got to see some of the world, I got my Yorkshire fix, Dean and I both learned something about investing from Mark’s book (which is brilliant by the way, I heartily recommend it and you can check it out here if you like) AND we got a film out of it for the Project Life Success channel.

Which I like to think of as a Successful Outcome. Hurrah and Double Tick!! √√

*Audible is pretty much the best thing EVER! I love to listen to audio books while I’m driving or doing housework (not that I do alot) plus all those other times when you’re still doing things but are in a position to listen. The subscription is something like £7.99 a month and for that you get a book free. Utterly recommended! √

Project Life Success – changing career aged 40+ and building my own business!